10 Transactions of the 



time and money in search of possible products of tlie soil. The saving to the people at 

 large would, in this respect, he ten-fold, and from the pockets of those who can ill afford 

 the expense. 



BRACHIOSPONGIA. 



BY RET. HORACE C. HOVEY, M. A. 



During a geological trip in 1855, I discovered a new genus of fossil sponge, which, 

 although extra-limital, may be worthy of a brief notice. My first specimen was exhibited 

 to Prof L. P. Yardell, of Louisville, Kentucky, and while in his hands it was seen and 

 described by Prof. D. D. Owen. (Second Report of Geology of Kentucky, p. 111.) He 

 styled it an amorphozoon, and suggested the name of "Scyphia digitata." I doubt if he 

 ever saw the fossil in place, though he correctly refers it to the Bridseye group of the 

 Lower Silurian. It was again described and imperfectly figured by Prof. R. Owen. 

 (Indiana Geological Survey, 1859-60, pp. 362, 363.) He changed the name to Sifphonm 

 digitata, and he recognized it as a sponge. The specimen thus described, having nine 

 arms, I claim as my discovery, and it should be acknowledged as typical of the genus. 

 Prof. S. S. Lyon afterward found one with eleven arms, of which casts have been widely 

 distributed. In 1867 I placed my original specimen in the hands of that accomplished 

 naturalist. Prof. O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, for a more careful examination. The 

 result was the rejection of the former unsuitable names and the substitution of Brachio- 

 spongia (the arm-bearing sponge), with the specific name of Eomerana, in honor of Prof. 

 F. Roemer, the leading authority on paleozoic sponges. Over fifty additional specimens, 

 complete or fragmentary, were obtained by me on a subsequent visit to Franklin county, 

 Kentucky, and a map of the sponge region was prepared. Specimens have also been 

 found in the same geological horizon in Tennessee. Allied forms were likewise found, 

 but they were so highly silicified and distorted as to make an accurate description 

 impracticable. Prof Marsh's notice appeared in the American Journal of Science and 

 Arts, vol. 44, p. 88; and it was afterward corrected and elaborated in the form of a paper 

 read before the American Science Association in 1868. Figure 1 represents B. Roemeran<i. 



[Fig. l.J 



The general appearance of the Braehiospongia is vasiform; a central cup, oval, with a 

 rim one or two inches high, being surrounded by tubular arms or fingers, hollow at the 

 base, and closed at the extremity. These arms vary in number, from five to twelve; and 

 on this variation specific distinctions are founded. The smallest sponge of this kind thua 



